


Surprise Return

by seekeronthepath



Series: Correspondence [6]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Draco Malfoy Has a Crush, Draco Malfoy is personally persecuted by Harry Potter's competence, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Harry Potter is good with kids, Harry is very impressive and he was not expecting to have to cope with that on a Sunday afternoon, M/M, Pre-Slash, Sairah (original snake character), more or less, this won't make much sense without reading the series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-18
Updated: 2019-01-18
Packaged: 2019-10-12 02:04:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17458532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seekeronthepath/pseuds/seekeronthepath
Summary: Harry comes home to Grimmauld Place after his apprenticeship





	Surprise Return

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Français available: [Retour surprise](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20207275) by [Matteic_FR (Matteic)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Matteic/pseuds/Matteic_FR)



On the afternoon of Sirius’ birthday in 2001, Grimmauld Place was caught up in its usual weekend bustle: Sirius and Ted keeping Teddy busy in the sitting room; Hermione consulting with Andromeda in the library; Augusta, Remus, and Anne Cooper discussing politics over tea in the kitchen; and Draco Malfoy watching it all from a corner over the top of a book. And then, someone knocked at the door.

"I'll get it," Draco called out, slipping a bookmark into place and putting his book on top of the mantelpiece where Teddy couldn't get at it. They weren't expecting anyone yet, but there was a party planned for the evening, so it could be just about anyone of their collected acquaintance. The one person he  _ wasn't _ expecting was Harry Potter.

Not that he was very recognisable at first glance. His hair was longer, hanging below his chin in messy black waves. His skin was darker - a lot darker, making his eyes look paler and brighter at the same time. He was wearing jewellery, quite a lot of it - necklaces and rings and even a pair of gold  _ earrings _ . And his clothes, a white linen tunic and a bright green wrapped cloth in place of trousers, they looked like nothing Draco had seen before. He had a snake with yellow and black scales wrapped around his upper arm. And (strangest of all, in some ways), he looked  _ comfortable _ . Confident and relaxed, with an easy grin that Draco didn't think he'd  _ ever _ seen on Harry's face before.

"Hello, Malfoy!" he said cheerfully. "Going to let us in? Only my warming charm's good, but it's twenty-six degrees in Kalale right now, so we're not exactly adjusted to the weather."

Stunned into silence, Draco stepped out of the way, holding the door open. "Let me get your trunk," he said awkwardly, inwardly cursing how easily he blushed. "Ah...Lady Longbottom is with Remus and Mrs Cooper in the kitchen, and Sirius is in the sitting room."

Harry shook his head, hefting his trunk easily. "No, I've got it," he said. "Is anyone going to mind if I take this through to the sitting room? Only Sairah's going to be a lot more comfortable once I get her a tank set up, even a temporary one." He frowned thoughtfully. "Actually, I might make her a permanent one for when we visit, if no one minds."

" _ Is that Harry? _ " Sirius yelled excitedly, and a moment later his head popped into the corridor. "It  _ is _ ! Welcome home! And who's that?"

"For goodness' sake, Padfoot, let him put his trunk down before you ambush him," Remus said from behind them, smiling warmly. "Hello, Harry."

Within a minute, they'd been swarmed, and Draco could hear Harry laughing from inside the pack of people. "Give me  _ five minutes _ to get Sairah settled and I'm all yours," he insisted. "But she's been very patient today and I'd better see to her first."

 

At that request, the sensible people (Lady Longbottom, Mrs Cooper, Mr and Mrs Tonks, Remus, and Hermione) corralled the maniacs (Sirius and Teddy) and managed to get Harry through to the sitting room, where he astonished them all by moving an end table against the wall and conjuring  _ glass _ to form a tall tank, putting some kind of charm on the base and pouring in dirt and leaf litter from a bag in his trunk, enlarging a couple of twigs to full size branches, deftly transferring his snake into the tank, and conjuring a perforated lid for it, talking back and forth in parseltongue all the while. 

Draco didn't think he'd ever seen Harry look so briskly competent. It was a little stunning to watch.

"...well," Remus said eventually. "Is that...Sairah, you said? She's all set?"

Harry looked up and smiled,  _ again _ . "Yes, she's fine now. She had a good meal before we left, too, so she won't need feeding or anything. Now, how have you lot been?"

"How have  _ we _ been?" Hermione objected. "You come back after an entire year, with a snake you didn't even  _ mention _ in your letters, and you ask about  _ us _ ?"

"...I'll go get some tea," Mrs Cooper said quietly, smiling a little. Draco would have gone with her, but he couldn't look away from the scene in front of him.

Harry shrugged. "I would have come back for my birthday, but she only hatched in June," he said, gesturing at Sairah. "And I couldn't exactly tell you about my end-of-apprenticeship project if I wanted to keep the surprise, could I?"

Sirius' eyebrows flew up, and he beamed. "End of apprenticeship project? You've graduated?"

"Yep!" Harry said cheerfully, leaning against the wall next to Sairah's tank. "One journeyman snake-charmer, at your service. Happy birthday."

 

Just then, Teddy piped up. "How come you've got a snake?" His hair was starting to take on yellow and black spots, so he was obviously fascinated.

"Well," Harry said, his voice softening a little (but not so much as to be patronising, which Teddy would have hated), "I've spent years and years learning  _ all _ about snakes. What they eat and where they live and how their bodies work and how to look after them and talk to them and teach them. And to prove I know all those things, my teachers sent me out to go get a snake egg and help it hatch and look after it and teach it things. And that's Sairah."

Teddy frowned a little. "Does she bite?"

Harry shrugged, and glanced at Sirius with a mischievous look. "She bites like a dog bites - not very often, but if she's angry or afraid, she might defend herself. She's hardly venomous at all though, so even if she  _ did _ bite someone, they'd be okay." He looked at the adults in the room. "I'm reliably informed by the kids I knew in Kalale that the English don't know  _ anything _ about snake safety, so for now the rule is 'don't try to approach or handle Sairah unless I'm with you and say it's okay'. When I start getting more, I'll give you some more detailed guidelines."

"You're going to have  _ more _ snakes?" Teddy asked, his eyes wide. "Why?"

"Well, I couldn't be a snake-charmer without snakes, could I?" Harry pointed out, smiling. "Would you like me to introduce you?" He glanced at Andromeda and added, "Just from outside the tank."

Teddy nodded, and Harry scooped him up, propping him easily on one hip. "Sairah," he said, followed by a series of incomprehensible hisses, and then, "Teddy. Teddy, this is Sairah."

Teddy giggled. "She's flicking her tongue at me!"

"She does that," Harry said indulgently. "Snakes use their tongues to smell. She's 'tasting' your scent, so she knows who you are when she meets you again."

Teddy stuck his tongue out. "Look, I'm tasting her too!" 

"Sure you are," Harry said, laughing. "Now, one more thing, okay? Sairah's a very nice snake, and I've just told her to be nice to you, but she's a lot smaller than you, and she can't speak to you like I can. So if you're ever doing something she doesn't want, she's going to shake her head no, and that means you should let go and move away. Okay?"

Teddy nodded solemnly. 

"Good," Harry said. "Now, let's practice." He hissed a little, and Sairah raised her head off the tree branch and shook it in an unmistakable 'no'. Harry nodded at her, carrying Teddy away from the tank, and handed him over to Andromeda.

 

"You taught her to shake her head?" Draco blurted out, impressed despite himself.

"Mmhm," Harry replied with a sly smile. "Taught her a lot of other things, too. But they can be a surprise for now."

_ It's possible _ , Draco thought to himself,  _ that I have a problem. _

**Author's Note:**

> Am I a Drarry shipper? Not particularly. But when I imagined what Harry would look like when he got home, (quite possibly something like [this](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a8/df/76/a8df762627e7242970663d7e7f51d907.jpg)) and then I imagined him encountering Draco, well...
> 
> Draco was a little offended by how attractive Potter had turned out.
> 
> (Fun fact: I wrote this bit in January 2018)


End file.
